Dark Sky – In Brackets EP

Departing from some of their harder-edged productions, South London trio Dark Sky arrive on fledgling New York-based imprint Mister Saturday Night with a decidedly deep and emotive 12”.

‘In Brackets’ is arguably the money shot: a moist kick opens it up before giving way to a wonderful build up – a beat-less twirl of strings and synths, both wistful and dramatic – that soon drops into an organic medley of delicate, gently snappy percussion. The twinkling synth-work lays a shimmer of light across the track, but Dark Sky’s signature, an undercurrent of darkness, is buried somewhere in the shifty rhythms and sinister throb of bass.

On the flip, ‘Voices’ is doused in a jazzy smokiness, seemingly blithe and downbeat. But it goes on to map an incredibly intricate progression that stretches a choppy vocal across crunchy, curt beats as the whole thing subtly intensifies: the piano keys slowly morph into swelling strings, whilst the vocals, at first upbeat, become increasingly haunting.

The second b-side, ‘Rare Bloom’, sees the trio return to a more familiar Dark Sky staple: moody and murky bass music, bolstered by a stark, industrial clang of percussion.

‘In Brackets’ and ‘Voices’, in particular, not only demonstrate Dark Sky’s versatility, but unveil a painstaking complexity to their sound.